1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for reducing the power consumption of a wireless terminal and increasing capacity of a wireless communication system without sacrificing functionality.
2. Description of Background Art
When a telephony terminal/endpoint is connected to a source (for example, private branch exchange (PBX), router, private/public network, peer device) via wires or a cable, the source continuously updates the terminal with status and control messages, often at a frequency of several hundred times per second. These messages are used to control visual, audible, and tactile display elements (some examples of these elements might be alphanumeric displays, light emitting diodes (LEDs), ringers, icons).
However, conventional sources often do not have the capability to distinguish between different terminal types, including whether or not the terminal is battery powered, in order to tailor the messages sent based on individual terminal characteristics. When the terminal is wired (e.g.; connected through a dedicated line) and the terminal is powered by the building power rather than a battery, handling of these messages can be done continuously.
However, if the terminal/endpoint is battery powered and is connected by means of a wireless communications network, such continuous updates can unnecessarily prevent the endpoint/terminal from entering “low(er) power mode”. In fact, continuously updating by the source of certain messages may provide no benefit at all to the wireless terminal user. For example, if the time-of-day clock of a terminal is capable of only displaying hours and minutes, no benefit results from having the source send time-of-day updates messages at a rate of more than once/minute.
As mentioned above, many sources (switching platform/base stations) are not equipped to determine whether or not that certain terminals have finite power supplies (e.g.; battery powered). If the source of the messages is unaware that the terminal/endpoint has a finite power source, there is no reason why these updates should not be continuous in order to maintain timely and accurate information. However, unnecessary updates not only require greater terminal battery consumption, but the updates also contend for finite bandwidth that exists over the wireless medium/channel, thereby reducing overall capacity for other devices/terminals/endpoints.
There are no known systems or methods to address these problems. In order to minimize the power consumption of a wireless terminal/endpoint, it would be desirable to have a way to limit the exchange of information transmitted from the base station to the wireless phone/terminal/end point. Further it would be desirable to limit the time that display elements are displayed, in order to further limit battery drain and ensure accurate information. In other words, in conventional systems information may get stale over time; in this case displaying no information to the terminal is better than displaying stale or dated information.